In-Home Remote Assessment of the MDS-UPDRS Part III: Multi-Cultural Development and Validation of a Guide for Patients.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The shift toward virtualized care introduces challenges in assessing the motor severity of Parkinson's disease (PD). The Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part III, the most used rating scale in PD, lacks validation for synchronous remote administration. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to validate the usability of a patient guide to allow an accurate video-based MDS-UDPRS part III remote examination. METHODS: We conducted a multi-stage mixed methods study that included a team consensus for the concept of the guide, cognitive pretesting, and usability (system usability scale, [SUS]) testing in five sites (total n = 25 participants) with distinct linguistic and cultural contexts. RESULTS: A multi-language (English, Portuguese, Spanish, and traditional Chinese) largely pictograph guide of the MDS-UPDRS part III remote examination reached benchmark for usability (SUS score ≥68) in 25 participants who completed the synchronous remote assessment. CONCLUSIONS: The MDS-UDPRS part III remote examination guide can be used remotely accurately, and facilitate clinical practice and research in a paradigm of telemedicine.